1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique used for information management, and in particular to a technique for managing image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some of the recent digital cameras are equipped with so called album function for categorizing taken images in accordance with the user preference to manage the categorized image data in an album by storing them respectively in separate files.
For displaying a catalog of albums (i.e., index display) retained by the digital cameras equipped with such album function, there has been a conventional technique to select a specific image contained by each album as the cover thereof and display the image of the cover (N.B. this image is called “cover image” hereinafter) selected for each album for an index display. The user of the digital camera can infer the content of each album by the cover image as a clue by setting a selected image as the cover image of each album.
Meanwhile, another known technique for managing image data is to manage image data files by listing them. An example of this technique is found in a Japanese patent laid-open application publication No. 2001-8149 disclosing a technique to replay a representative image first when replaying an album by registering information identifying the representative image for the album at the head of control list.
Yet another technique of a kind is found in a Japanese patent laid-open application publication No. 11-224266 disclosing a technique to create automatically a book type of electronic image document for handling predetermined ones from among the representative images as covers, in addition to displaying a list of images selected by a required condition from among index images extracted from a series of images (i.e., moving image) as a series of representative images.
Generally speaking, a user naturally remembers the details in scenic contents of recently taken images better than those of images taken long ago. It is also natural that the user, even after finishing editing images for registering the categorized images in the album, remembers the scenic contents of images registered toward the end of the registration work better than that registered in the beginning.
In the meantime, while some of digital cameras equipped with the album function can add the title of the album to the cover image, the user may have a hard time recalling the content of the album by looking at the title of the cover image if the title is not well suited, in which case the images registered toward the end of editing work of the album may remain in the memory of user better than the entitled representative images in much more cases than not.
As such, it is desirable to make an image registered last in an album as the cover image representing the album in consideration of the connection between the memory of user and the album contents, because the images handled in any way toward the end of the work remain in the memory of user more clearly. In the conventional technique, however, the functions for registering a new image in the album and for selecting and setting a cover image for the album have been independent of each other, forcing the user to endure a cumbersome operation in order to register a new image as the cover image for the album.